by Rachel Axon, USA TODAY Sports

by Rachel Axon, USA TODAY Sports

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia â?? Kelly Clark often doesn't need a reality check. The snowboarding legend has found success and happiness in her career because she's eager to define those by more than the wins to her name.

But that's the thing about reality. Sometimes it hits you when you're trying to win a gold medal.

As Clark was the first to climb an Olympic podium at the base of the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park halfpipe, she thought about the path she'd set on since the last time she was in this position. She had done all she could to train herself physically and mentally.

Could she be happy devoting the four years since Vancouver to the goal of winning gold and coming home from the Sochi Games with bronze? She could, and she was.

"I felt more prepared for this. I handled that same situation that I handled in Vancouver with much more grace, much easier for me this time around," she said. "I was thinking, 'Wow, I've grown up a lot.'

"I will chase down gold medals and wins and podiums just as much as the next person, but I can still be so happy apart from simply winning."

In the Olympic finals on Wednesday, Clark fell on her first run, just as she had in Vancouver, leaving a trick early, hitting the lip of the deck and falling to the flat bottom.

Afterward, Clark rode to the corral at the base of the pipe to check in with her friends, Kim and Skyler Smith, who had traveled to Sochi from Sacramento with their 4-month-old son, Wyatt.

It hurt, she told them, before saying she was good to go.

"That was really hard. We were hurting for her," said Kim.

Added Skyler, "It shows her commitment and also her experience that something like that doesn't take her out, doesn't affect her."

Her second run included a 1080, a trick only she did, but she faltered a bit on her landing, likely keeping her from earning gold. She received a 90.75, one point off Kaitlyn Farrington's winning score.

"For me, that wasn't my best run," Clark said, "but for me in this pipe tonight after my practice, that was one of the greatest accomplishments I've ever done."

With her Sochi medal, Clark became the first three-time medalist in the event since it was added to the Olympic program in 1998. Clark first won Olympic gold at 18 years old in Salt Lake City.

They bookend a career that, while not done yet, is more accomplished than any other snowboarder. Her tally is now 67 wins and 110 podiums in 129 career events, making her the winningest rider in the history of the sport.

As she waited on the podium, though, she realized yet again that she could care about snowboarding far more than winning.

"Sometimes it's good to get a little check in again. And for me, it is about my riding. Sure it's great to win. It's great to get the medals. I'm chasing that down just like everybody else," she said.

"I thought I did a really great job, and I was impressed with myself tonight stepping back and looking at things. But it is about tricks for me. It's about my riding, and it always has been."